Seventh
by darkestboy
Summary: The Doctor finds himself taking on Clara's charges for a trip in time and space as the Paternoster Gang deal with an unwelcome house. Set between The Crimson Horror and Nightmare In Silver.


**Characters:** 11th Doctor, Clara Oswald, Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, Commander Strax, Angie Maitland, Artie Maitland, Great Intelligence, Whispermen and Original Characters.  
**Synopsis:** The Doctor finds himself taking on Clara's charges for a trip in time and space as the Paternoster Gang deal with an unwelcome house.  
**Spoilers:** Set between _The Crimson Horror_ and _Nightmare In Silver_.

"Die, you wretched reptile!"

These words came from the voice of an angry young man of twenty years, dressed in a magenta suit with a white shirt and deep purple tie and mask with a velvet cape. He snarled the words to his would be mark and she could smell his determination as he brandished a cutlass. It was a weapon in which he raised above his head, desperate to make a deadly blow.

The intended victim was a green skinned woman, who for the last few years had labelled herself as a great detective of sorts. She was a woman of a deadly reputation who hung out with the most peculiar of companions, both of whom the young man also intended to slay upon their return. His benefactors had hired him to take her out and with one single blow, he would be rewarded handsomely for it.

"Not today, I'm afraid," the woman known as Madame Vastra replied as a slow smile crept on her face. The assailant only had a moment to turn around before seeing another woman in front of him.

"Hello ma'am," Jenny Flint smiled, holding onto a vase that she then smashed into the face of the intruder, hitting him full force and rendering him unconscious as he fell to the floor in a heap. "I thought you said you were taking the day off."

"That was the plan, my dear Jenny," Vastra smiled as she rose to her feet before taking the cutlass off her would be assassin. "But these things have a habit of creeping up on you."

"Stupid human scum," the voice of Strax had boomed as he entered the living room to see that Vastra and Jenny had company. "This would never happen with the great Sontaran fleet. Your species often show little finesse in proper military tactics."

"As you keep reminding us, Strax," Jenny muttered with a trace of boredom in her voice. Generally, she got along fine with the Sontaran but occasionally they had a difference of opinion on her species and usually it would be Vastra who would end up playing mediator. This was going to be another one of those occasions.

"It's not my fault it's been proven that the great Sontaran race is superior to your primitive of species, boy," Strax said in a manner than sounded a little stroppy. "Facts are facts after all."

"Again, Strax, which you have reminded Jenny of once too often," Madame Vastra said as she looked at her would be assassin. "Make sure our guest is properly restrained before he wakes up. You can also make sure he doesn't make a sound for the time being."

"Yes, ma'am," Jenny responded as she pulled a chair towards the unconscious man.

Vastra watched as both Jenny and Strax pulled the man up to the chair and bound his hands behind his back, keeping him restrained to the chair. Jenny also pulled a silky cloth and used it to gag the intruder as Strax then bound his feet.

Vastra had picked up the telephone to inform the inspector on the other line the Magenta Assassin had been apprehended but that she needed at least an hour to interrogate the man privately before he could come to arrest him. With reluctance the inspector agreed to her request. While she waited for the young man in her captivity to regain consciousness, Vastra found herself thinking of the Doctor and wondering what sort of escapades both himself and the young Clara Oswald were getting themselves into since their encounter in Sweetville.

"I can't believe I'm actually agreeing to this," the Doctor said trying to sound huffy but doing a poor job of it as the young girl who was entering the TARDIS looked bored. "Well, what do you think?"

"Why is it a police box?" Angie asked as she looked around in the control room as Artie and Clara stepped inside as well. "Couldn't you think of something better as a disguise?"

"What do you mean 'better'?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow at the teenage girl. "What's better than a police telephone box?"

"Lots of things," Angie said drily, folding her arms and generally looking unimpressed. "It's ancient."

"Angie," Clara said, trying her best to avoid a battle of wits between her charge and her new best friend. "I'm sure there are others things you can say about the TARDIS."

"Suppose," Angie muttered as she began to look at her phone, texting Nina that she was gone on a day out with Clara and her badly dressed new boyfriend.

"What about you, Artie?" Clara smiled at the young boy who looked lost in his own thoughts. "What do you think of the TARDIS?"

"It's bigger on the inside," Artie said, sounding startled and looking more impressed than his sister was at the moment. "Can it really travel in space and time?"

"You tell me, Artie Maitland," the Doctor smiled as the young boy looked around with his sister, forgetting what he had been asked. "Do you think a simple police telephone box can really do that?"

"I guess so," Artie smiled nervously as Clara had remembered that it was both Artie and his sister that had been aware of her new life with the Doctor.

"Well, they did find pictures of us in different parts of time on the internet," Clara murmured as she closed the doors and gave the Doctor a look. "So much for discretion, eh?"

"Yeah, so much," the Doctor said as he began to work the console and decided on choosing a place where all four of them could travel to that was risk free. This was going to take a while. "In all of time and space, I've never had a companion of mine outed by the internet."

"First time for everything I suppose," Clara murmured to herself as she thought of one of the pictures the kids had shown her. _When was I in Victorian London and why I can't remember it?_ "Maybe we could take the kids to see your friends."

"Vastra, Jenny and Strax?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Maybe another time, Clara. Strax isn't always the best with children."

"Or distinguishing from people either," Clara pointed out. "I'm pretty certain he referred to me as a boy, though I can't remember why."

A look of concern crept on the Doctor's face as he watched Clara. The young woman placed a hand to her head, almost as though she was trying to remember something but couldn't. The Doctor's own mind flashed back to the Dalek Asylum when he had realised Oswin's true identity and even when the governess version of Clara had fallen from the sky to her death because of the Ice Lady as well as a recent confrontation he had with Clara about her real identity. At some point, he knew a rather uneasy conversation was going to happen between him and Clara but that wasn't going to be today. Then he thought about what Vastra had said to him about having unfinished business with Clara and another thought crept up in his head.

"Doctor?" Clara had smiled, standing right beside him now, her hand gently on his shoulder. "You looked a million miles away."

"Did I?" the Doctor smiled brightly, before he began to fiddle with the controls a bit and set a destination for them. "Well, it just so happens, Clara Oswald that while I was a million miles away that I managed to find the perfect place to take Artie and Angie and it's even danger free."

"Well, this should be interesting," Clara smiled in amusement, folding her arms as both Artie and Angie were now standing beside both her and the Doctor. "Looks like we're going -,"

"- It's a surprise," the Doctor hushed Clara before spotting Angie giving him a sceptical look. "But one I guarantee you'll like. Trust me, I'm the Doctor."

_The Doctor._

The Doctor.

The Doctor.

"I think he's coming around, ma'am," the voice of a young woman murmured. He could hear and as his eyes opened he could see her too along with that beastly short man as well but it was the green woman whose attention intrigued him the most.

The young man found that he couldn't move his arms due to his hands being tightly bound to a chair he was now sitting on against his will and he noticed that he had been gagged as well when he tried to grunt in protest. More worrying for him was that the green skinned woman was now smiling as she held his mask in her hand, along with his wallet too.

"Oliver Croust, otherwise known as the Magenta Assassin," Madame Vastra smiled at him with delight. "It's always nice to put a face to my would be assassin. I regret to inform you that you are not the first who has tried to kill me in recent times, though I also suspect you won't be the last either."

"Svvnth," Oliver grunted through his gag as he tested his restraints to find that there was no give in them.

"Sit still, girl," Strax snapped at the man, pointing his own cutlass at his throat, which made Oliver calm down a little. "Or else you will be obliterated."

"I think he's trying to say something, ma'am," Jenny replied as she pulled the cloth out from his mouth and he looked at his three captors in contempt. "You were saying."

"Seventh," Oliver snarled at Madame Vastra. "You were going to be my seventh kill. Still might be if I get out of these restraints."

"How interesting," Madame Vastra walked around Oliver as Jenny and Strax moved away from him. The man shifted in his chair, but maintained eye contact with the Silurian. "Your previous victims have all been men. You've killed six of them in the last three months. Some who were making some rumblings but you didn't kill them of your volition. You were hired to."

"I'm honoured you know my work, lizard," Oliver said sharply, as he struggled in his bonds. "It might give you some comfort before I send you and your gang on your way."

"Mr Croust, I think you and I both know that you've failed your mission and that there are only three options left for you and one of them definitely awaits you," Vastra smiled as she left his mask on his lap. "Now that you're unmasked, it's not going to end well for you."

"Then kill me, you wretched creature and be done with it," Oliver snapped again, struggling all the more in the chair.

"I have no need to kill you, I've already eaten, so that's one option eliminated," Vastra smiled again as she noticed that he looked a tad uncomfortable when she had mentioned already eaten. "The only other option is to let you loose on the street and back to your benefactor but I have a feeling he wouldn't be so generous."

"The Doctor wouldn't kill me," Oliver said in haste. "He knows my potential. He knew only I could take you out, Madame Vastra."

"Did you just say, 'the Doctor'?" Jenny asked as she turned to both Vastra and Strax. "That can't be right. He wouldn't."

"The girl is clearly lying," Strax bellowed as he punched Oliver in the shoulder. "State your real benefactor or face annihilation, human scum."

"I told you, the Doctor believes in me," Oliver smiled as he realised that the name mentioned made his three captors very uncomfortable. "He doesn't like you lot very much. I think he thinks your deaths would send out a clear message."

Madame Vastra looked at Oliver and while she didn't believe for a moment that the Doctor would ever send someone to kill her or Jenny and Strax, Oliver definitely seemed to believe the man that hired him was called the Doctor.

"Describe him to me," Madame Vastra smiled a sweet but threatening smile as she placed her hands on Oliver's shoulders and leaned in to face him, taking away any remaining personal space left. "And if I think you're lying, I might be forced to reconsider a previous option. After all, it's not too long away from supper and I can always have an early one if you provoke me."

Oliver went to mumble something, but then stopped himself. When he did that, Vastra smiled a little more as though something had finally made sense. Jenny and Strax however seemed oblivious.

"What is it, ma'am?" Jenny asked.

"Well, don't keep us out of the loop," Strax said, more impatiently than Jenny before getting a curt look from both Vastra and Jenny. "Ma'am."

"You say your benefactor was the Doctor, did you not?" Madame Vastra raised an eyebrow as Oliver look uncomfortable. "Tell me, what did he look like?"

"Why should I?" Oliver snapped as he began to babble. "It won't do you any good, will it? It's also the only advantage I've got over you lot, so if I'm to hang, then you can all wonder why the Doctor is coming after you and when he's going to strike. It's just a shame I won't be able to see it when it happens though."

"I get it now," Jenny smiled, piecing it nicely together as she turned to Vastra. "He never saw him, did he?"

"Exactly, my dear," Vastra smiled at her wife before turning back to Oliver, seeing the look of a man discovered on his face. "You might as well tell us the rest, not that it's of any consequence but I do like a complete story, don't you?"

"I never saw his face," Oliver said, feeling defeated as he could hear a carriage coming up towards the house and watched as Strax was motioned by Vastra to see to the front door. "His men grabbed me, made me wear a blindfold and took me to him. The Doctor said he was fed up of your constant interferences and wanted you dead. I was the man for the job."

"And yet you failed," Vastra smiled as Jenny went behind Oliver to undo his wrists. Vastra then used the cutlass to free his feet before pointing it at his throat in case he had any ideas. "And I should also inform you that was not the Doctor who ordered our execution. You're not very skilled for an assassin, are you Oliver?"

"I've killed six of London's most influential people during the last three months," Oliver smirked. "Even if I do get the rope, something tell me you won't be long following me, lizard."

"Not under my watch she won't," the sound of an elderly gentlemen accompanied by three younger men stepped into the living room as Jenny and Strax watched from behind. "The elusive Magenta Assassin. Not so elusive anymore, eh? This city owes you a debt, Madame Vastra."

"Think nothing of it, Inspector," Madame Vastra smiled as she watched the policemen handcuff Oliver and drag him out of the house. "He won't be troubling these streets any further."

The gang went outside and watched as Oliver was manhandled into the couch that would take him away to the station. Vastra knew that he was unlikely to escape death given the six people he had previously killed and while it had been years since Jack the Ripper, the effects of the brutal killer still lingered within London even now. For Oliver, he would be made into another example and while Vastra struggled to find sympathy for the man, he had left her feeling very curious about another matter indeed.

"He really seemed to think it was the Doctor, ma'am," Jenny said as Strax snorted behind her and Vastra turned to pay her attention.

"Do you, Jenny?" Vastra asked softly as she kept a firm grip on the cutlass. Jenny watched as she began to sniff the air, feeling as though they were being watched.

"Of course not, but he seemed adamant though," Jenny replied, gently taking her wife's hand softly.

"Wretched human scum, they'll say anything to shift the blame," Strax said a little too quickly before looking at Jenny. "I suppose not all of them though."

"Now you're getting it," Jenny smiled at the Sontaran and for a tiny moment, he smiled back at her before changing his facial expression to something more neutral when Vastra spotted the look.

"Whoever did hire Mr Croust and pretended to be the Doctor," Vastra said, turning towards the door and stepping back inside. "I have a feeling we haven't heard the last of them."

As Vastra slipped inside with both Jenny and Strax and closed the door behind her, a familiar face with four of his henchmen stepped out from the shadows. His henchmen were dressed funereal with top hats and no eyes and he himself was wearing the body of a man who had been dead for the longest of times.

"Very soon," the Great Intelligence whispered softly, watching the house from afar. "I'll see you all at Trenzalore."

- The End -


End file.
